


How to Say: i luv u

by KI_atlas



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Akaashi needs a break, Cheating, Confessions, Custody Battle, Fluff, Internal Conflict, M/M, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, OCs - Freeform, Slow Build, Unrequited Love, ive always wanted to use that tag, no beta we die like men, sorry they were necessary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:47:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29058474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KI_atlas/pseuds/KI_atlas
Summary: It's been over four years since Akaashi had last contacted Bokuto. After a dozen missed calls, shameful texts, and no reply, Akaashi had long since moved on and left Bokuto in the past. However, with present events, Akaashi's life is slowly consumed by plagued memories that all lead back to their glorious high school days.How can Akaashi face Bokuto when neither of them are their old high school selves?---just a little romance :)
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	How to Say: i luv u

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm glad you stopped by, and I hope you enjoy. This fic was created because I just really wanted a romance story between these two and... I guess I want to share it with all of you!  
> This is rated MATURE for language, implied activities, and just some adult-themes. You're free to read it, but please be cautious. 
> 
> Anyway, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy.

Four long years had been enough time for Akaashi to graduate, find a decent apartment, and start a stable lifestyle all on his own. However, during that time, he could never forget a certain owl-resembling high school crush.

Now, the lamp by his side flickered, reminding him of the darkness that loomed outside his window. Akaashi glanced over to the clock on his wall to reveal the time to be a few anxious minutes past midnight. He shook off the fatigue coming to rest to his eyes and focused back on the soft glowing of the laptop screen. 

In the hollow-like emptiness of his apartment, the screen seemed to be the only thing grounding him to reality. In fact, it seemed like the only thing to be real; perhaps that’s why he always felt inclined to work to feel satisfied. 

Suddenly, a loud vibration snapped him out of the thoughts. Akaashi looked down to find his phone vibrating with an incoming call.

“Hello?” Akaashi pulled his glasses off as he leaned back in his chair. 

“Hi,” the other caller replied. 

Akaashi sat up straight. “Hey, Kozume-san.”

An exasperated sigh could be heard from the other line. “I keep telling you to call me Kenma, Akaashi.”

“Right,” Akaashi said. “I forgot.”

Kenma hummed in some form of acknowledgment. “Anyway,” he began, “have you spoken to Bokuto recently?”

Akaashi’s eyes widened at the sudden question. He momentarily forgets how to formulate words and bites his tongue as he tries to process his next response.

Bokuto was a sensitive subject. 

“I haven’t.” A heavy silence lay in the call; the static loud. “Why do you ask?”

Faint clicking echoed through the call. “Kuroo brought it up,” Kenma said. “He said he was worried or something. Guess Bokuto really went MIA.”

Akaashi swallowed thickly. “Yeah.” His voice came quietly. “I guess he did.”

He leaned against his arm, exhaling slowly. Akaashi had forgotten how much the loss of Bokuto hurt. 

He’d forgotten what it felt like to have such a bright ball of joy show up to his door every morning to walk him to school. He’d forgotten the masked adoration he kept hidden away from the publicity of their school but would think about for hours in the comfort of sleep. The little notes he wrote during class, but never showed to Bokuto. The late nights spent practicing his setting just for Bokuto. 

It seemed everything in his high school days revolved around his captain. 

Even now, picking at the pen in his hand, Akaashi could only remember every little memory he had locked away. 

“Akaashi?”

Perhaps it was for the best. 

“Sorry.” Akaashi sat up in his chair. “I zoned out for a second."

“It’s fine,” Kenma replied. “You’re getting sleep, right?”

Akaashi let out a chuckle. “You’re starting to sound a lot like a mother, Kozume.”

Kenma scoffed through the line and the dozen clicks came to a stop. Akaashi could imagine Kenma looking up from his game and giving the wall a deadpan look as he spoke.

“I swear, it’s Kuroo,” Kenma said with distaste. “His mother-hen attitude is rubbing off on me.” A beat passed. “It’s like the plague.”

The clicking continued on. It was oddly calming. 

Akaashi allowed the call to hang in silence for a few minutes. His eyes fluttered shut despite his mind's protests, and slowly, the weight of his chest lifted. The soft echoing of the keys kept Akaashi awake, but he allowed his mind to wander. In his own world, Akaashi felt safe to explore the day's events from a point-of-view that wasn't restricted by the invasive stress his job brought him.

Somehow, all Akaashi could see in the darkness of his reality was Bokuto. The warmth he brought, the joy he carried, and everything in between. 

It was a cruel reality. The long days and nights Akaashi would spend sitting over his phone, just hoping that that day would be different. He would pray at night that when he woke, a banner would be present on his phone. That it would just slightly blur the goofy photo Bokuto had set as his wallpaper. That "Bokuto-san" would appear at the top and underneath, a message. Any message. And then, when Akaashi wouldn't reply for 30 seconds due to his morning grogginess, Bokuto would send a string of incoherent texts that Akaashi would decipher as impatience. 

Akaashi thickly swallowed the lump forming in his throat.

He snapped his eyes open and blinked around the room in a sense of urgency. 

Closing his eyes once more, Akaashi smiled softly as he resumed the thought. He could see himself replying to the chain of text bubbles and awaiting Bokuto's reply; most often, it would be an "AKAAASHII!!" or a string of emojis followed by a simple, "morning". 

What Akaashi wouldn't give to see those texts appear on his phone once more.

"I'm going to go off to bed," Akaashi said abruptly. "It's pretty late."

Kenma hummed. "Alright, see you."

"Bye." 

Akaashi pulled the phone from his ear and let it rest in his hand as he watched the screen disappear and the dispatch tone echo across his small apartment. He checked the time. _12:41._

He stood and shook the stiffness from his limbs. This wasn't the time to be thinking about Bokuto.

The next morning, Akaashi was greeted by Udai Tenma at the front of their studio office. He felt heavy and awfully drowsy which he attributed to the long night he had spent wandering off into the past.

The older man waved from a distance. "Akaashi!" 

"Morning, Udai-san," Akaashi greeted with a slight bow. "You're usually not here until later."

Udai nodded merilly. "Well, we need to get going as soon as possible, so I thought I wouldn't keep you waiting for too long." 

Akaashi narrowed his eyes in confusion. "We're going somewhere?" 

"Oh, right!" Udai exclaimed as he searched for something in his bag. "I was supposed to tell you yesterday, it kind of flew past me, sorry." Udai continued to rummage through the bag until he presumably found what he was looking for. With a proud, "Aha!" he pulled two small pieces of paper and offered them to Akaashi. 

Akaashi took them from his hands and read the printed wording. His eyes widened slightly. "A volleyball game?"

He looked back at Udai to find him grinning from ear to ear. "Yeah," he replied cheerfully. "As far as I'm aware, we are to conduct an interview. Some news company handed the job over to our studio," Udai explained with hint of annoyance, "but I thought it'd be fun."

Akaashi couldn't remember the last time he had touched a volleyball, let alone travel to a game. 

Then, all of the preparation worry flooded through his head. He needed to know who they're interviewing, the name of the player, the age, the team they play for, old acquaintances, and any information that would give the larger companies the drama they required.

Akaashi bit his lip in concern, this job was thrown onto them quite quickly, it would be a challenge to gather this much information on the player. 

"Who's the player?" Akaashi asked as he pulled his phone from his jacket. "We should do some research. I'd like to get some background information before blindly running into a-"

"Don't worry!" Udai interrupted. "I'm sure you have _some_ background information on this guy." Udai paused to think. "You two would've crossed paths in school if I'm correct."

"Crossed paths?" Akaashi repeated.

He began running through the dozens of students he had been acquainted with in Fukurodani. Somwhere in the back of his mind, he prayed that it wasn't who he thought he was, but the pessimism seemed to drag his thoughts back towards the cruelty of fate.

"Bokuto Koutaro, if I recall correctly," Udai said. Akaashi didn't reply. "Wasn't he in the top 5 aces before?"

Hearing the name felt so foreign. 

"Oh! And I remember the small one on his team, too," Udai continued, oblivious to Akaashi's masked distaste. "Hinata, right?"

Akaashi's mind stuttered for a moment, and the surprise brings an eerie silence to his thoughts. 

The news didn't hit as hard as he would've expected it to, but some part of his chest ached with bittersweet longing. 

"Akaashi? You still with me?"

At the sound of Udai's voice, Akaashi looked up and found his eyes. "Yeah," he replied. "We should get going."

Udai nodded. "I haven't watched a game since I left high school! This is gonna be fun."

Akaashi didn't reply.

* * *

The stadium was lit with dozens of lights overhead. Hues of color fell upon the single court in the center of the hollow space; coloring the massive audience around. Each member of the crowd was bustling and talking amongst themselves. In their hands were posters, banners, and noise-makers colored and decorated with the team mascots.

Akaashi couldn't help but compare this stadium to the one that he used to see consistently in his high school days. The familiarity the court brought him couldn't be shaken. 

"You look dumbfounded," Udai said bluntly.

Akaashi looked over at him. "Just reminiscing," he replied. "The court still feels like the calm before a storm. Admittedly this one is a bit more glamified than the ones you would see at nationals, but it carries the same energy; like a battlefield. Where you know someone is going to be torn down." He paused. "And that you'll be working hard to make sure it's not you."

A silence hung in the air. 

"I will never be able to understand what you say when you speak all mystical," Udai said. 

With that, the pair sat down. It seemed as though they were lost in the sea of equally dedicated fans around. As if they weren't the two that would have the opportunity to interview one of the leading aces in the country once the game was over.

Akaashi tried not to think about it.

Soon after, loud horns resonated through the stadium. In the most dramatic flare, the back doors opened to reveal a team in all black, the letters "MSBY" printed across the front. 

The crowd erupted in cheer, chanting something incoherent. 

However, Akaashi's eyes fixed on a specific player from afar. Hidden in the thousands, Akaashi was sure the figure locked in his gaze wouldn't notice. 

The number 12 was imprinted upon his back. He strode into the court's atmosphere with a contagious grin on his face and an unshaken confidence in his walk. _Bokuto_ was imprinted along the top of his jersey. 

Akaashi felt weak. It felt almost wrong to see him once again after four years of no contact. To see him once again, and almost completely unchanged... 

Udai cheered next to him; bringing his hands together to join in with the shouting of the crowd.

"And here they are!" the commentator's voice carried over the fans. "The MSBY Black Jackals!" 

Akaashi tuned out most of the game. He kept track of the points, and the crazy plays he could only imagine achieving in his high school days, but the gameplay itself seemed to fly over. However, anytime he would see Bokuto go up for a hit, a small spark within him brought an adoration-filled smile to his face. Akaashi remembered how much he loved to watch Bokuto play. More importantly, how much he loved to watch Bokuto play in his top form, and nothing could beat this.

The proud smile formed by itself. And Akaashi closed his eyes to consider the ridiculousness of his actions. 

Bokuto hadn't replied to a message Akaashi had sent in four years. There was certainly nothing he wanted more than an explanation, but a nagging voice in his head pulled him from any confrontation. 

"Whoa!" Udai exclaimed. "D'you see that?"

"That's an impressive shot from there," Akaashi replied. "The set was well-positioned, as well."

Udai leaned his chin on his interlocked hands. "Some people are just naturally talented aren't they," he said with a sigh. "Or hard-driven, I guess."

Akaashi looked at him, and then back to the court. "I suppose that's why only some people go pro."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Udai said. "Why didn't you?"

The question caught Akaashi off-guard. He turned swiftly to look at his coworker with a furrowed look in his eyes. "Sorry?"

"I asked why you didn't go pro," Udai said. "You were pretty well-rounded, you could've gone pro. Or at the least played in university."

Akaashi turned back to the game. "I wouldn't compare my abilities to the likes of prodigies," he said. "Miya Atsumu-san, for example. I think there are much better players out there in the world."

Udai made a noise of agreement. "Imagine if you did go pro, though," he said with a dreamy look in his eyes which Akaashi had labeled as his 'inspiration look'. "You and Bokuto would have good chemistry and playing at this level... it would be fun to watch."

"It would be fun to play, as well."

Akaashi couldn't imagine still setting for Bokuto. Not when he had played with so many wonderfully talented setters across the board.

He tuned the negative thoughts out and focused back on the game. The time-out that had been called was coming to an end and the crowd was becoming quiet for gameplay once more.

As the MSBY stepped back onto the court, Akaashi caught Bokuto's gaze. 

Bokuto stopped walking to look directly at Akaashi with widened eyes. The world around them faded away and the crowd became deafened silent. A hitched breath Akaashi had been holding left his lungs burning for air and scratching at the lump forming in his throat.

"Bokuto!" a teammate below called as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go!"

With seeming reluctance, Bokuto averted his gaze and returned to his team. 

"He looked right at you," Udai commented.

Akaashi hadn't yet looked away. And in a stiff and croaky voice, he replied, "Yeah. Yeah, he did."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter updates will be slightly slow, but please bear with me. 
> 
> Bye~


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